RICHMOND, Va. — Chimborazo Elementary School in Richmond’s East End is turning to community fundraising to build a new playground after the school district denied their $250,000 budget request for the second consecutive year.
The school’s third through fifth graders currently use a bare asphalt area with old exercise equipment during recess and after-school programs — a space that Principal Cordell Watkins describes as inadequate for children’s play needs.
“Really this is a parking lot,” Watkins said. “There’s not any equipment here, there’s not anything for the kids to do so we supply equipment, we supply balls and ropes and those kinds of things for the kids to use.”
“It’s basically like it’s not even a playground,” said fifth-grader Marlo Alley. “There’s no shade out here unless you’re under the trees. There’s not really anything to do other than walk around.”…